Mary's Morning Meeting and JEOPARDY!!

Howdy Folks! If there could ever be one supremely superior day packed with fun, cooperative learning, and friendship... today was THAT DAY!!
Mary started our last day before the holiday with an awesome meeting, message, tambourine greeting, and the "acting out" game! Loved it! Well done Mary!
Soon after, we "showed off" our best handwriting and took our buddy test (review of long vowels a, e, i, and o)! We caught up, as it was "ketchup" day for work board (and yes, Charlie, you may have a side of fries with that...) while Ms. Worthley met with readers (her... my favorite thing to do)!!
We ended our fabulous day playing Jeopardy in math with Ms. Weinberger (who was psyched)!! After "partnering" up, and naming our teams (Team Smart, Math Lovers, Awesome Thinkers, Thinking and Winning, Math Eagle Lions, Celtics Math Winners... how cool are those for some team names) the playing began! Students were challenged in several categories: story problems (converting "question" language into "answer" language), fractions, place value, guess my number, and MYSTERY.... oooooo!
We had a blast! Great sportsmanship and teamwork, cooperation, leadership, and MATH PROBLEM SOLVING.... how great is that?!?!
Happy holidays to you all! I will miss your amazing students, and look forward to seeing them in the new year! Cheers!

Maya's Meeting, Winter Concert, Mr. Howell's Read Aloud... and Let's Play Jeopardy!!

Greetings Friends! Another full and busy day was had by all in second grade today. Maya started us off with "One Bottle Of Pop" (love singing it in a round), the koosh greeting, and "telephone"! Well done Maya! We had a brief few minutes for snack before going to our SES Winter Concert... and what a show it was! If you were there, you were, no doubt, impressed by the strings/orchestra and band (now, after school enrichment programs at SES) as well as the recorders and chorus! What a show! Can we just say that Mr. Hines can sure put a smile on our face? Well done 5th and 6th graders... great singing... you sure put us in the holiday spirit!! LOVED IT!
We came back to class to a repeat performance of our readers theater, for those that missed it the first time. Nice job Mackenzie... much better with you in the cast, I must say!
After that, we ended the morning with our Word Study Jeopardy game, and worked together to answer questions about phonics, syllables, spelling rules, and some serious "mystery" questions! The questions were designed for success and learning, but the game goals also focused on good sportsmanship and cooperative learning.... team work! Remember second graders... I have my eyes on you... (you get it)!! Stickey-icky-ooey-gooey eyes were awarded all who participated... FUN!
After lunch, Mr. Howell was our guest reader at read aloud with a beloved story from Canada (our neighbor to the north) called "The Hockey Sweater". He shared the history of the story, beginning with some Canadian money! We noticed what's important to Canadians, and loved that they feature Hockey, children playing, and children's literature on their currency! Wow... whose working in the Canadian mint?
Finally, Charlie had another awesome math meeting, and we worked on December Calendars. Tomorrow is our last (full) day before the winter break. I will seriously miss your students over the break and look forward to our return! I hope I'll see you at the January 1st Winter Skating Party at Mullins Center at UMass (6:30-8:30).... Stevie and I will be there and skate our hearts out (though some might call that a "hot mess"). Be there, don't be square... and all money supports the 6th grade fund raising committee! Skate, have fun, and support our 6ht grade brothers and sisters! YEAH!!

Adan and Charlie start our week with meetings!

It may be a short week, but we're going to make the most of it!
Adan started our day off with one great morning meeting! We practiced handwriting immediately following, and launched into a review of long vowel sounds. This week, students were "in the driver's seat" as they generated all their own words to follow our rule! Well done second grade!
We spent the last half hour of our morning with our 4th grade buddies making beautiful friendship pins! After we complete this buddy-project, we'll sell our pins to friends in school, and donate all our change to the Educate Malawi project! We ended the day in math with a P.O.W! problem and reviewed how to properly "show your thinking" when solving problems... and today, we had a fraction problem! Well done second graders! Great day! Looking forward to the school's holiday concert in the morning... along with PE tomorrow... bring sneakers!

Rebecca's Morning Meeting and V.I.P!!

Big day for Rebecca today... and she didn't disappoint! She started the day with a great morning meeting, and ended the day with an awesome VIP! Her dog is one of the most well behaved living creatures to enter our room, and we seriously enjoyed her company! Thanks to Rebecca's Mom for supporting such a memorable VIP for Rebecca as well!
In between morning meeting and VIP, we read our poems (Mistletoe!) for each other and some even memorized it! Wow Mackenzie... impressive!
We also wrote and shared holiday stories in writing workshop and impressed Ms. Worthley, as well as our peers! Best writing workshop ever, when it comes to fiction and excellent writing! So, so glad we took the time st share everyone's stories!
Right after Rebecca's VIP we had a quiet moment to enjoy one of our favorite holiday stories and some popcorn... Too Many Tamales! Everyone loved it so much, they requested every Friday be popcorn-story treat days... can't say that I don't LOVE that idea!! We'll see friends!